Highly Recommended Off-Broadway: LIFE AND TIMES OF MICHAEL K (St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn)

A stop-motion animated figure in a pink shirt with an expressive face.

St. Ann’s Warehouse will present the American premiere of  Life & Times of Michael K, the Baxter Theatre Centre / Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus  puppet theater production adapted from J.M. Coetzee’s 1983 award-winning novel. The show will run November 29-December 23.

South African director Lara Foot adapted the novel in collaboration with  the Tony Award-winning  Handspring Puppet Company (War Horse).

Life & Times of Michael K  is about a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. The production combines dance, film, and music as Michael treks across an unforgiving landscape and  becomes a metaphor for the earth itself.

The rest of the creative team is set designer Patrick Curtis, original music composer Kyle Shepherd, lighting designer Joshua Cutts, directors of photography and film Fiona McPherson  and Barrett de Kock, videographer and editor Yoav Dagan, projection designer Kirsti Cumming, costume designer  Phyllis Midlane, and sound designer Simon Kohler.

The cast features nine South African performers led by puppet master Craig Leo  with puppeteers  Roshina Ratnam  and  Markus Schabbing  and actors  Sandra Prinsloo, Andrew Buckland/ Wessel Pretorius, Faniswa Yisa, Carlo Daniels, Billy Langa,  and  Nolufefe Ntshuntshe.

photos by Richard Termine

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